'Meadow's' Narrative

This work is another in a series where i have been using a technique developed by the co-founder and co-principal of the Opus School of Textile Arts, Julia Caprara. (Since Julia's death the school is known as the Julia Caprara School of Textile Arts, of which I am a student)
.Julia published a series of articles in Quilting Arts magazine where she demonstrated several of her distinctive techniques, if you want to see how this work is done.

This work has two stories, one from my interests as a geographer and the other from my interest in the Blackfoot Nation's stories.

The Fireweed plant is known as a 'first coloniser' after an area has been disturbed by natural occurrences such as avalanches, floods, fires and man-made disturbances such as forestry, road works, urban development. Fireweed moves in and stabilises the ground so other plants can then take root.

I have continued to explore this natural process of succession and how humans fit in with it as a concept in some of the new work to be shown in Calgary next week.

At another level, i see the Fireweed as an enabler and nurturer of others, a traditional role taken on by women in our society, which is why it is appropriate for the work to be made from fabric and thread and stitched, traditionally the media used by women in their homes.

The second story comes form the Blackfoot people. A woman went to a campsite of a group of braves who had captured and tied up her lover. She started a fire in the prairie grasses at one end of the camp to distract the braves and ran around to the other side of the camp to untie and rescue her lover. They both then ran across the prairies and headed for the mountains.
When the braves had worked out how they had been tricked, they started to chase the couple. They were gaining on the couple until they came across a string of fires that blocked their way. The fires sprang up where ever the woman's moccasins touched the ground and so protected them from getting caught. After the fires died down Fireweed grew in the place of her footsteps.

If you look at any image of the Fireweed you will see magenta flowers and blue-green leaves. In this work i really pushed the intensity of these colours because i wanted it to appear strong and full of life.

Julia Caprara: Julia By the Sea

Julia's idea of the perfect place to be while working in her sketchbooks was to be warm while sitting beside water. So here are some perfect spots for Julia.

Cuba

Torbay, New Zealand

Vancouver Island, Canada

Just before Julia got sick, she and Alex planned to travel across Canada giving workshops then finshing with a few days beside the sea on Vancouver Island. Julia was working on her colour book and was looking forward to exploring the colours of the Pacific Coast.
If you have ever seen Julia's sketchbooks you would have seen evidence of her special ablity to capture the feeling of a place with colour. She then translated this feeling to her embroideries.

Julia Caprara

I am filling my blog space with colour today to remember Julia Caprara who passed away on Friday. Julia was one of the doyennes of the art world. People all around the planet will be feeling a sense of loss. Many will be wondering how they will cope without her. But no one more than Alex, her husband who has been beside her through her long illness.

Performance Art

During one of my earlier Opus BA modules I was exploring wrapping the environment. I wrapped a fabric covered cotton cord around a tree stump and left it. Periodically, I have been photographing it to see how it has changed while out in the elements.
Yesterday I looked out of the window and saw the cord being used in a performance.

An ecstatic/frantic squirrel was pulling the cord up to his nest. When the cord suddenly tightened the squirrel was jerked to a stop with a back flip.

He dropped the end and had to retrieve it from the ground. Then he started pulling the end apart -and filling his cheeks with cotton before returning to his nest.

That is how my environmental art turned into performance art. I am waiting to catch the encore.

Try again

Opps, I think I uploaded just one still. Hopefully this second attempt is the whole video.

Nope, it doesn't work. I'll have to play around some more.

In the meantime, I must get back to my Opus work. I am reading about whether there is a way of seeing the world that is inherently male or female. A big question. I know there are differences so I am looking into recent scientific research on the topic of differences between the male and the female brain. If I can't find anything convincing then maybe the differences are cultural.

African art and Picasso

Kwele initiation mask, Congo

With my Opus BA studies I have been looking at how African art...

...inspired Picasso. This is a detail from Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), a painting so daring it even shocked the other avant-garde artists hanging out in Paris at the time.

Eroticism and the Body in Art

Today, for my Opus studies, I compared these 2 works of art in my answer to the question...

Is the body in art always eroticised, if so why? To answer the question I have done lots of reading on the history of psychoanalysis, gender issues and 'the gaze'. All very interesting stuff.

The Odalisque & Bathing

I have been studying images of nude women all week for my new Opus module. It is very interesting to read different people's opinions as to why nude women were featured so often in art.

Two of the most interesting views are in the book 'Women and Art contested Territory' by Judy Chicago & Edward Lucie-Smith. As one would expect, Judy hates these 'masterpieces'.

Opus BA Studies

I have been so busy these past 2 weeks finishing up the summer module of work for the Opus BA course I am doing. This afternoon I put everything in a box and sent it on its way to the UK to be assessed. What a relief. It was a challenging module, all about learning to draw the human figure to express personal ideas.
This is an image of a quick stitch sample I worked up for 1 of the assignments where I explored mothers & roses.
It is already 2 weeks into the new semester so I now must focus on a new module of work.

Human Anatomy

The Opus BA module I am doing this semester is Visual Studies where the whole focus is on drawing the human form. We are advised to take a figure drawing class which I did for an intensive week at Red Deer Collage during Series. It is also recommended we study a real human skeleton. I have seen skeletons when I go to the chiropractor and physiothrapist but I haven't had the opportunity to study one. Then I found the book 'New Atlas of Human Anatomy The first 3D Anatomy based on the National Library of Medicine's Visual Human Project, general editor: Thomas McCracken. To get the amazing images, 1mm thick cross sections of a frozen cadaver where photographed. A computer processed the info in these images to generate accurate 3D images which are printed in the book. I have been studying the images of bones, tendons & muscles as I practice drawing the human form.

This book reminded me of another student's entry in the ACAD Artawearness IIX performance. Amy Malbeuf made a series of anatomical costumes where each one showed a different system in the human body.

It was a weird sensation to see each system in motion. With the black costume in low lighting one didn't notice the rest of the human form. It was as though Amy had taken the images in the book to the next stage and put them in motion.

Amy said, "It was a comment on our society's emphasis on over-consumption & superficiality." Great work Amy. Can't wait to see what you come up with next year.

Red Deer College - Series

This summer I am working on the Visual Studies module of the Opus BA(Hons) programme I am enrolled in. It is highly recommened one takes a figure drawing class. My drawing skills are poorly developed, to say the least, so I attended a 5 day long open drawing studio session at Red Deer College's summer art programme, Series, in the hope that total immersion would produce some observational drawings I could use in my assignments.
What a time I had. With Ross Bradley's organisation and years of live drawing experience we had a different model every day from 9 in the morning until 10 at night, with breaks to consume food & drink coffee. It was quite a unique experience, in this day, to be able to totally focus on one activity for a sustained period.
Another bonus for me was the calibre of the other drawers in the studio. Studying their work was an education for me. And each one was such an interesting person and most pleasant company. I looked forward to joining them in the studio each morning.

While in Red Deer Collage, I stayed in residence. Over the week, as I walked to and from the studio, I enjoyed the drama of Canadian prairie skies.

This storm caused hail damage to crops and there was a tornado warning over the radio. I was too busy drawing to follow up on whether it touched down or not. That's how absorbing this whole drawing experience was.

Banff Centre Artist Residency

While in residence in the Leighton Artist Colony at the Banff Centre with the fibre art group Articulation, I made an installation in the trees near our studio.

I was exploring how we manage a natural environment while I was staying in a National Park/ UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This study is part of my Opus BA(Hons) degree work.

Opus BA (Hons) New Module

I am in the second year of a BA (Hons) in Embroidered Textiles with the Opus School of Textile Arts. This semester I am working on a very interesting module where I look at embroidery in its social context. I find out what was going on when a specific type or style of embroidery was being done.

These passed two weeks I have been studying Dutch paintings from the seventeenth century to understand the world leading linen industry in the country at the time. Artist Jacob van Ruisdael is famous for his Dutch landscapes. What I have found most interesting about his work, apart from his magnificent skies, is how many of his paintings show flax/linen in various stages of production. One can see grassy fields covered in hundreds of meters of linen cloth going through the bleaching process.

Dying Day

Lesley and Donna Clement had fun dying everything wool, silk and nylon using Gaywool dyes. Lesley is now using the results in her study of East Indian embroidery techniques for her Opus studies.